Worried about Resident Evil going off-book? Zach Cregger teases it staying true to the games

If you were starting to lose hope in the Resident Evil films after Paul W.S. Anderson's bullet-time antics and that Netflix attempt which, frankly, nobody wants to talk about, here comes Zach Cregger steering the next big screen reboot. Now, when the first trailer dropped, plenty of long-standing fans clocked that the plot was nowhere near the games, and, quite rightly, wondered what on earth was going on this time. But Cregger, who's got solid horror credentials from Weapons and Barbarian, insists he's a fan himself — so now everyone’s waiting to see how much Capcom DNA actually makes it through.

“He’s constantly coming up against these padlocks that stop him from progressing. [There’s also] healing spray cans, the green herbs.”

That’s Cregger himself, talking it up in a new featurette that DiscussingFilm posted online. According to him, they’re not just slapping the brand on any old script — we’re getting gameplay homages: think first-person-shooter POV, progression locked behind literal doors, and, naturally, the infamous green herbs and spray cans that have saved many a player from dying in a corridor. About time someone leant into it, honestly. Anderson’s films always managed to avoid the series’ mansion puzzles and chucked everything underground, which felt like a missed trick if you ask me.

The New Plot

Right, so what is Cregger’s Resident Evil actually about? This one’s a fresh story — he wrote it with Shay Hatten (the bloke behind Army of the Dead), and this time they're leaning back into horror more than sci-fi action. There was an early-leaked logline doing the rounds for months:

• Our main character, Bryan (played by Austin Abrams), is a medical courier ferrying organs about late at night. He’s making his way to Raccoon City General when, out on a snowy mountain road, he hits a strange woman with his car. She survives, but he quickly realises something’s not right — and suddenly, it’s full-on outbreak time, complete with all manner of tentacled monstrosities and experiments gone well beyond ethically questionable.

The official synopsis isn’t a million miles off either: Cregger is promising an action-packed, unrelenting ride, as Bryan is pulled into chaos with bio-weapons on the rampage, and one terrible night that just keeps getting worse. Sounds closer to the original game’s vibe than anything we’ve had recently, with survival horror front and centre.

The new Resident Evil film is Cregger’s attempt at pushing the franchise back toward the genuine horror roots fans have been clamouring for as far back as the GameCube days.

Cast and Characters

Leading the charge is Austin Abrams (who you may have seen in Weapons), with a supporting cast that includes Paul Walter Hauser (from Cobra Kai), Zach Cherry (who played around in Severance), and Johnno Wilson. Kali Reis is on board as well, playing an ex-military character — interestingly, a role that originally was written for a bloke, but ultimately went to Reis instead. Cherry, for his part, is said to be a hospital scientist — which in this universe, probably means a very short life expectancy.

All signs point to Cregger actually paying attention to what makes Resident Evil work for the diehards — atmospheric horror, locked doors teasing you in, and yes, the herbs. Whether this reboot finally gets the balance right, we’ll have to wait and see, but if nothing else, someone’s finally having a proper go at it, roots and all.